The 1959–60 Oberliga was the fifteenth season of the Oberliga, the first tier of the

football league system Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The league operated in five regional divisions,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

, South,

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. The five league champions and the runners-up from the west, south, southwest and north then entered the

1960 German football championship The 1960 German football championship was the culmination of the football season in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959–60. Hamburger SV were crowned champions for the third time after a group stage and a final, having previously won the ti ...

which was won by

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

. It was Hamburg's fourth

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

and its first since

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

. The 1960 German championship saw an attendance record for the Oberliga era with 87,739 seeing

Tasmania 1900 Berlin SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin was a German football club based in the Berlin district of Neukölln. History The club was founded as ''Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900'' on 2 June 1900. It is believed the founders of the club were about to migrate t ...

hosting 1. FC Köln. A similar-named league, the DDR-Oberliga, existed in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, set at the first tier of the

East German football league system The football league system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'' or DDR) existed from 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1991. Structure For most of its history, competitive GDR footba ...

. The

1960 DDR-Oberliga The 1960 DDR-Oberliga was the twelfth season of the DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of league football in East Germany. It was the last season not to be played in the traditional autumn-spring format, with the Oberliga having played for six seasons ...

was won by

ASK Vorwärts Berlin 1. FC Frankfurt is a German football club based in Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg. The club was founded as the army club SV VP Vorwärts Leipzig in Leipzig in East Germany in 1951. The club won six East German championships as ASK Vorwärts Berl ...

Oberliga Nord

The 1959–60 season saw two new clubs in the league,

VfB Lübeck VfB Lübeck is a German association football club playing in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein in the country's north. In addition to its football side the 1,000 member sports club also has departments for badminton, women's gymnastics, handball, and ...

and

Eintracht Osnabrück Eintracht (German for ''accord, agreement, harmony'') may refer to German-language newspaper '' Eintracht'' 1922–2017 from Chicago or the following football and sports clubs: ''Germany'' * FC Eintracht Altona * Eintracht Bad Kreuznach * FC Ei ...

, both promoted from the Amateurliga. The league's top scorer was

Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German footballer and football official. As a striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the West Germany national team. Widely regarded as one of ...

of Hamburger SV with 36 goals, the highest total for any scorer in the five Oberligas in 1959–60.

Oberliga Berlin

The 1959–60 season saw one new club in the league, SV Norden-Nordwest, promoted from the Amateurliga Berlin. The league's top scorer was Klaus Heuer of Berliner SV 1892 with 21 goals.

Oberliga West

The 1959–60 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Sportfreunde Hamborn The Sportfreunde Hamborn 07 are a German association football club based in Hamborn, a district in the north of Duisburg. History The club has its origin in 1903, when the ''Ballspiel-Club Hamborn'' was founded, which merged four years later w ...

and 1958–59 DFB-Pokal winner

Schwarz-Weiß Essen Schwarz-Weiß Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The side has its origins in the gymnastics club ''Essener Turnerbund'' founded in 1881. A football department was formed in January 1900 and this b ...

, both promoted from the 2. Oberliga West. The league's top scorer was Jürgen Schütz of Borussia Dortmund with 31 goals, the highest total for any top scorer in the history of the Oberliga West.

Oberliga Südwest

The 1959–60 season saw two new clubs in the league,

VfR Kaiserslautern VfR Kaiserslautern () is a German sports club in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Creation VfR Kaiserslautern was created through several mergers. In 1893, MTV Kaiserslautern was formed. The football team split off and forme ...

and Ludwigshafener SC, both promoted from the 2. Oberliga Südwest. The league's top scorer was Helmut Kapitulski of FK Pirmasens with 27 goals.

Oberliga Süd

The 1959–60 season saw two new clubs in the league,

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. History In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südk ...

and

FC Bayern Hof SpVgg Bayern Hof is a German association football club based in Hof, Bavaria. The club was founded on 1 June 1910 as ''Ballspielclub Hof'', but within a year was renamed ''Britannia Hof''. In 1913, they merged with ''FC Roland Hof'' and ''FC Ph ...

, both promoted from the 2. Oberliga Süd. The league's top scorer was

Heinz Strehl Heinz Strehl (20 July 1938 – 11 August 1986) was a German footballer who played as a forward. Career A Bundesliga title-winner with 1. FC Nürnberg in 1968, Heinz Strehl was one of the proven goalscorers in West Germany in the 1960s and abl ...

of 1. FC Nürnberg with 30 goals.

German championship

The 1960 German football championship was contested by the nine qualified Oberliga teams and won by

, defeating 1. FC Köln in the final. The runners-up of the Oberliga West and Süd played a pre-qualifying match. The remaining eight clubs then played a home-and-away round in two groups of four. The two group winners then advanced to the final.Das Finale der Deutschen Meisterschaft 1959/1960
Fussballdaten.de, accessed: 16 December 2015

Qualifying

Group 1

Group 2

Final

References

Sources

* ''30 Jahre Bundesliga'' 30th anniversary special, publisher: '' kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1993 * ''kicker-Almanach 1990'' Yearbook of German football, publisher: ''kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1989, * ''DSFS Liga-Chronik seit 1945'' publisher: DSFS, published: 2005 * ''100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband'' 100 Years of the Southern German Football Federation, publisher: SFV, published: 1997

External links

The Oberligas on Fussballdaten.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberliga, 1959-60 1959-60 1 Ger